This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Would've been hilarious if, in true AI fashion, it deleted his wallet immediately after recovering the password.
Seems pretty dicey to let an AI anywhere near your wallet.dat
I actually had to do the same thing with a Dogecoin wallet. Claude basically just walked me through how to use a python script or CLI tool (maybe both? I forget) to bruteforce the password based on variations I knew already. It didn't need the wallet file.
If you're locked out, there isn't much to lose.
I mean... If there's any possibility of recovery on the table then you've got a hell of a lot to lose. 400k is life-changing money.
trustmebro
I know nothing of crypto. What's wallet.dat? Why does it help in this situation? What could Claude Ai have done to help figure out the pw?
"However, the breakthrough reportedly came when he uploaded files from his old college computer into Claude.
Rather than simply guessing the password, Claude helped dig through the old files and identify an older wallet.dat file that appeared to predate the password change. The user also reportedly had an old mnemonic phrase, which helped unlock the wallet once the correct file was found."
Yeah, I saw that but I was trying to get more detail. None of that makes sense to me. Why did a wallet.dat file help? How did the mnemonic phrase help? I literally have zero context for crypto.
Well, in crypto all your assets are on the blockchain. But you can access them using wallet software. You can have multiple addresses that have a balance, and most of the time anyone can see those balances, as the ledger is synchronized and transactions are checked by all clients.
However, in order to access and send the money, you will need proof that you are the owner. Therefore every address has a keypair. In older desktop clients, there was a local file called wallet.dat which stored all of the owned wallet addresses and their private keys. That file could optionally be encrypted. Newer clients often use a mnemonic phrase and derive all keys for the addresses based on that single phrase, but the person in question still had the original wallet.dat, even unencrypted, meaning he could access the keys all along. Not sure what the mnemonic had to do with it. Perhaps that belonged to a newer wallet where he imported the old addresses into.
Apparently an old file had his previous password in plaintext... The AI just searched through a ton of files and found it, I guess.
The llm found the file that was encrypted with an older password that the guy could remember. The llm didnt decrypt anything or find a vulnrability, it just found an older fill the guy could unlock and he gained access to his bitcoin wallet that way.
ELI5: The guy thought he'd lost his keys, but had a spare in another jacket all along
Ohhhhhh
Rather than simply guessing the password, Claude helped dig through the old files and identify an older wallet.dat file that appeared to predate the password change. The user also reportedly had an old mnemonic phrase, which helped unlock the wallet once the correct file was found.
The password, as later revealed in the post, was: “lol420fuckthePOLICE!*:)”
What a password. I’d love to see his xbox live username.
Probably XxX360NoScope420fuckthePOLICEXxX
That guy said he fucked my mom.
I don't think he meant to call your mum a pig
Nah, we all fucked that guys mom.
An absolute menace in the Call of Duty lobby voicechat.
The man was well ahead of his time.
Amazing
I bet it was "hunter2".
The password, as later revealed in the post, was: “lol420fuckthePOLICE!*:)”
In the article.
I'm familiar with the meme, I thought the real PW in question was funnier, especially as the user was clearly inebriated when he made it to forget that one.
"*******" is a weird password. Aren't there supposed to be letters and numbers ?
Lemmy hides it for us. It's pretty sweet.
I absolutely love that feature. Imagine you accidentally type or paste your ******** into a comment. Now everyone can see your ********! What a banger. But not on Lemmy! It gets masked automatically so that none can see and guess you ********!
If i ever ran a public fedi instance, that top 100 password list would legitimately be in the filter just for shits and giggles.
All I see is "lol420fuckthePOLICE" does Lemmy automatically hide passwords or something?
Yeah, all I see is stars while you see "lolFuckthePOLICE".
Yeah it has this super innovative feature that looks up passwords and hides them for you. Like, my email password is "trumphasamushroompenis" and it hides it. Cool right?
I have only one question: did recovering the password involve getting high and then using Claude Code?
Meh I think the time has more to do than the weed, I'm a lifetime smoker and I wouldn't forget the password to hundreds of thousands of dollars that's just stupid.
This is why I write all of my passwords on Post-Its that I stick to my monitor.
I just use Aassword.1, Bassword.1, ...
Fascinating.
Fassword.1, as a matter of fact! 🤣
Good for him I guess
Would you change your opinion about AI for $400,000?
This is more of a condemnation on Windows file search than anything else...
Nope.
I'll tell you once I get that cheque
